Typical dental-cement compositions now in use comprise polymeric compositions or more particularly comprise the well-known combination of zinc oxide with eugenol or zinc oxide with phosphoric acid. In use, the dentist admixes a liquid component comprising eugenol with other additives and modifiers, together with the powdered zinc oxide and filler material, just before use. The dental-cement composition thereby prepared is then employed typically as a filling material, either temporary or permanent, or for other dental uses. Such prior-art, zinc oxide-eugenol cements and their preparation and uses are set forth, for example, in Skinner's Science of Dental Materials, Ralph W. Phillips, Seventh Edition, W. B. Saunders Company, 1973, pages 483-497; "New Developments in Zinc Oxide-Eugenol Cement", Annals of Dentistry, Vol. 26 (No. 2), Gerhard M. Brauer, 1967, pages 44-50; and "Improved Zinc Oxide Eugenol Type Cements", JDR 41, Gerhard M. Brauer et al, 1962, pages 1096-1102.
A number of other materials have been suggested and tested for use as a dental-cement composition, including zinc phosphate cements, zinc chloride cements and various resins, such as epoxy resins, as well as dental cements which are based on liquid-chelating agents, such as 8-hydroxyquinoline, for example, as more particularly set forth in "The Ability of 39 Liquid Chelating Agents to Form Cements with Metal Oxides, Respecting Their Usability as Root-Filling Materials", T. Halfdan Nielsen, Acta.Odont.Scand. 21: 159-174 (1963).
The zinc oxide-eugenol and other zinc oxide bases presently used in dental cements have the distinct disadvantage that they must be admixed by the dentist and be compounded separately just prior to use or application. In addition, such cements vary in solubility and are often irritating to tissue of the patient. It is, therefore, most desirable to provide for an improved dental-cement composition and the preparation and use of such a dental cement which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art and which provides new and distinct advantages over such prior-art cements, in order to facilitate its easy and rapid use by dentists.